On Wednesday, 10 April 2013, Fernando P. Méndez, a qualified property registrar, the former Chairman of the Spanish National Association of Registrars and a member of the UIC Academic and Social Council, participated in the continuing education lecture series organized by the UIC Faculty of Legal and Political Sciences. Méndez discussed the mortgage issue of dation in payment and its alternatives.
Introduced by Manuel Ballesteros, the Vice President of the UIC Board of Trustees, the speaker began with a historical overview of the economic crisis, specifically in Spain. “Of the nineteen times Spain has been close to bankruptcy, most have been due to issues of credit rating. In spite of this, we haven't learned”, Méndez said.
“Over-indebtedness exists because we have the euro and the euro is managed by Germany and France”, said the Registrar. “Europe as such doesn't exist. We have a structural problem. There is no European state and there are no European politicians. Each state votes for the politicians from its own country and they will always place the interests of their own countries and voters first”.
According to Méndez, in the United States it is more profitable to lend money to poor people, who will not be able to pay it back, than to lend money to the wealthy. This is because, although they will be repaid, loans to the wealthy could lead to a series of very complicated problems.
Finally, Fernando Méndez talked about the big problem of mortgages. “It wouldn't be fair to those who are paying their mortgages and fulfilling their obligations”, he said in reference to dation in payment in cases of foreclosure. “60% of Spaniards are already in the last five years of their mortgages and those who are at risk of losing their homes are in the minority,” he said. “Except in some states in the United States, dation in payment is unheard of in other parts of the world”.
